A political powder keg erupted on Capitol Hill Thursday after Hillary Clinton publicly demanded that House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer allow her and former President Bill Clinton to testify in an open, televised hearing on the Epstein files.
The move stunned Republican investigators, who say the Clintons have spent months dodging subpoenas and resisting transparency. But it also caught Democrats off guard, as many in the party have begun distancing themselves from the couple amid a renewed national push for accountability under President Donald Trump’s second-term Justice Department.
In a fiery statement posted on X, Hillary Clinton insisted she and her husband have “nothing to hide” regarding their long-criticized ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
“For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith. We told them what we know, under oath,” she wrote. “They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction.”
She then turned directly on Comer.
“So let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, Rep. James Comer, let’s have it — in public. Cameras on. We will be there.”
Her challenge came only hours after Comer announced both Clintons would appear for closed-door transcribed interviews on Feb. 26 and 27. According to the chairman, both interviews will be videotaped and entered into the official record.
Republicans say the sudden embrace of transparency came only after the Clintons realized Congress was prepared to hold them in contempt — and possibly refer them to the Trump-era Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
“They didn’t expect Democrats to break ranks,” Comer said in a statement Wednesday night. “But Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight Committee have been clear: no one is above the law — and that includes the Clintons.”
Nine Democrats joined every Republican last month to advance a contempt resolution against Bill Clinton. Three Democrats voted to advance one against Hillary. Staff members say the Clintons were “shocked” by the defections.
Comer says that once the couple recognized the votes were there to move contempt charges to the House floor, they “completely caved.”
Republicans argue that after years of secrecy, the American public deserves to hear directly from the Clintons on their long-criticized relationship with Epstein.
“We’re here for one reason,” Comer said. “To deliver transparency and accountability for the American people and for the survivors of Epstein and Maxwell.”
A senior Oversight investigator added privately, “If Secretary Clinton wants the cameras turned on, many of us would welcome that. Sunlight has a funny way of making certain stories harder to spin.”
The Clintons’ scheduled depositions mark one of the most politically explosive moments yet in the Epstein files investigation, now revived under President Trump’s second term after years of stalled inquiries.
Republican strategists say Hillary Clinton’s demand for a public hearing may be a tactical attempt to regain narrative control.
But others believe it signals something else.
“She knows the tide has turned,” said a former Trump adviser familiar with the case. “This isn’t 2016. This DOJ is serious. Congress is serious. And Democrats aren’t protecting them the way they used to.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton are expected to speak separately in their filmed depositions. Whether those tapes will eventually be released remains unclear.
One House Republican put it bluntly: “One way or another, America is going to hear the truth.”
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Continue with the contempt of congress and put them in prison, both of them would look fine in orange jump suits.
Hillary has no right to ‘demand’ anything!
That’s just what Congress plans on doing